Obviously, it would be hard for me to discuss the topic of business and human rights without touching upon the friction – a term that I am here using euphemistically – between Canada’s mining industry and the rights of local populations in various jurisdictions, many of which as I just said, are in Latin America. Indeed, some terrible wrongs have been committed, or at least allegedly committed, by Canadian companies or those employed by them: gang rapes, murder, torture, expropriation, destruction of the environment, etc. The aggrieved individuals come to Canada to seek justice before courts that are unbiased, uncorrupted and generally technically competent. It represents a huge challenge for the Canadian legal system to ensure that those responsible for such crimes or misdoings be held to account and we are now seeing a struggle between the quest for justice and the private law, and particularly the private international law, of this country.

At the risk of making a lot of enemies here this evening, allow me to say that should the Plaintiffs succeed in enforcing their judgement against the assets of Chevron Canada or should it be decided that the assets of Chevron Corp. include Chevron Canada, there would probably result disastrous consequences for Canadian companies, whether they are conducting business abroad or are themselves affiliates of foreign companies.

It is often said that hard cases make bad law and in my view this is the risk that we are confronted with.